Itinerary Input - 20 days in April 2016

Tracy,

Here are some thoughts;

• Consider traveling from Madrid to Córdoba (day5) & spend a
  night there before heading to Sevilla. It's nice to experience the city at night, once all the tour groups have left.

• Consider spending a night in Toledo as well-- same reason as above.

• You don't need a car while in Sevilla, consider waiting to pick up
  car rental the night before you plan to leave the city.

• I'd recommend adding an extra night in Granada.

• Make sure you book Alhambra tickets in advance (at least 2-3 months in advance)

Enjoy!

I agree with the previous poster regarding a car in Seville. I did the opposite and dropped off a car when we arrived in Seville. Driving into the city was ok, but I definitely didn't need a car and it would have been a big hassle to park, etc.
I would add a night to Granada and decrease a night in Ronda. The "white villages' are nice to visit but you can likely visit one on the way to Ronda - and one on the way out. I remember driving to 2-3 in one day. There are not really much in the way of activities - just the scenery, ambiance, etc. Arcos de la Frontera was my favorite. The roads are pretty good but narrow and wind around - so it takes longer to get between places than the miles would indicate.
We stayed 3 nights in Granada and I would like to have stayed longer.

Andalusia is lovely. Enjoy your trip.

I would suggest overnight in Cordoba, pick up car when leaving Sevilla, and perhaps include Arcos de la Frontera.

Madrid (4) >> Cordoba (1) >> Sevilla (3) >> Arcos de la Frontera (2) >> Ronda (2) >> Granada (3) >> Barcelona (5)

0 Fly to Madrid, Vancouver to Madrid Tues, April 5
1 Arrive Madrid Wed, April 6
2 Day trip to Toledo Thurs, April 7
3 Madrid Fri, April 8
4 Madrid Sat, April 9
5 Train to Cordoba Sun, April 10
6 Train to Sevilla Mon, April 11
7 Sevilla Tues, April 12
8 Sevilla Wed, April 13
9 (pick up car) Drive to Arcos de la Frontera Thurs, April 14
10 Day trip to Jerez or Cadiz Fri, April 15
11 Drive to Ronda Sat, April 16
12 Day trip Zahara or Grazalema Sun, April 17
13 Drive to Granada (return car) Mon, April 18
14 Granada Tues, April 19
15 Granada Wed, April 20
16 Fly to Barcelona (1.5 hrs) Thurs, April 21
17 Barcelona Fri, April 22
18 Barcelona Sat, April 23
19 Barcelona Sun, April 24
20 Barcelona Mon, April 25
21 Fly to Vancouver Tues, April 26

My wife and I were in Spain in April 2014. Keep in mind it's a large country and in April you will need warm clothes for Madrid, Toledo etc but it may be warmer in Granada. Like the other responders, I think you should spend less time in Ronda and more time in Granada. You will spend a full day at Alhambra and there is so much more to see and do there. We took a wonderful "tapas tour" there and loved it. The hill towns are nice but I'm not sure the long drive is worth it. We rented a car for a day in Seville to visit the hill towns and it was a long trek. We loved Madrid. It's a wonderful city. We took a train to visit Toledo for a day and I highly recommend you doing that. We stayed at the Artrip Hotel in Madrid which we loved. In Seville we stayed at the Hotel Amadeus which was awesome. And, in Granada, we splurged on the Alhambra Palace which was a short walk from the entrance to Alhambra. We didn't make it to Barcelona since we decided to save it for a future trip. By the way, the train system in Spain is easy, convenient and relatively cheap. For a great primer on the system, check out The Man in Seat 61 www.seat61.com . Have a great trip!

The 2.5 train is the AVE from Madrid to Barcelona. You would have to get to Madrid from Granada which is another 5 + hours. So flying is indeed faster.

I agree with Priscilla, Toledo is much better as an overnighter. Consider leaving your bags at your Madrid hotel (or the train station lockers) and going with an overnight bag. Then take the train to Cordoba or Seville.

Feria's dates (not yet confirmed) are April 12-17. This is the biggest festival, not just in Seville, but in Spain> It attracts huge crowds and high season prices. If you want to be there then, you should make hotel reservations soon (just make sure you can cancel them if you have to). An alternative would be to stay in Cordoba and day-trip to Seville by train.

If you start your auto trip in the morning, you can spend the day driving through the pueblos blancos to Ronda, then have 1 full day in Ronda, 1 more full day to drive through more of the hills, and leave early the next morning for Granada, where you drop the car, then have most of the day for sightseeing, the next day for the Alhambra, and - depending on the time of your flight - more time in Granada, before ending in Barcelona.

Until you decide on Feria, you can't really plan the rest of your trip! If you aren't staying in Seville, you won't want 5 nights in Cordoba.

Thank you all for your great advice! I really appreciate you taking the time. I'm still trying to get our itinerary nailed down, as I found a great round trip fare to Madrid - so now reworking my itinerary. I'm really torn because I've ended up with several 1 and 2 night stays, which I really prefer to keep to a minimum. UGH - so hard to know what to do!

I didn't know about the Faire in Seville, so now have switched our stay there until near the end, so as to miss that week. I would love to work in somewhere "less traveled" like Cuenca or Samananca, but the travel time makes it difficult.

Here's what I'm looking at now, but still fluid:

Madrid 3
Barcelona 5
Toledo 2
Cordoba 1
Granada 4
Ronda 1
Seville 2
Madrid 1

1) Head straight to Cordoba on your arrival day.
2) Take a night from Granada and stay a 2nd night in Ronda.
3) Fly from Granada to Barcelona - check Vueling.
4) Consolidate your time in Madrid, allowing for an extra night in Sevilla (which definitely needs minimum 3 nights)

Cordoba 1
Seville 3
Ronda 2
Granada 3
Barcelona 5
Toledo 2
Madrid 3

I agree that consolidating your time in Madrid makes more sense than having time there at the beginning and at the end. Problem is that, to get to Cordoba, you will have to go into Madrid to catch the train to Cordoba.

Just FYI, when we went to most of these same cities and towns (we did not go to Ronda), we all really liked Cordoba and did not like Granada, except for Alhambra. We spent two nights / one full day in Granada, plus the following morning, and that was more than enough time for us. Cordoba was the capital of Moorish Spain for quite some time, so has a number of sites from that time period, in addition to the Mezquita, which I found amazing. When we went in 2012, it was free in the mornings (we spent two nights / one full day and part of the following morning in Cordoba, as well). So how much time you spend in these cities kind of depends on what you want to see.

One comment about going to a less-touristy city. One thing I like about Spain is that, compared especially to France and Italy, there are fewer tourists generally, and particularly fewer Americans. So except for places like the Alhambra, of course, I think you'll feel that you're more among locals than tourists.

Looks good overall. Here's my advice:

Pick up the car as you leave Sevilla - car will just sit and cost money while you are actually in Sevilla. So pick it up on the 14 or 15.

I'd add an extra night to Granada, and be sure you get your Alhambra tickets way ahead of time! The ticket release schedule is erratic, but it could be up to 90 days ahead. Start checking at 90 days but don't be alarmed if it's closer to 60.

A night in Cordoba could be nice. Perhaps get an early train from Madrid on the 5 to Cordoba, stay the night, and then go to Sevilla (45 minutes) the morning of the 6. That said, I think Cordoba can be done as a day trip if you prefer.

Granada to Barcelona - probably fly. I don't know how take the train in under 6 hours. I thought it was more like 8. If it were 2.5 hours, definitely take the train...but it's not. If the night train is still running, and you like night trains, that might be an option, however flying will be easier. Vueling flies this route. The Granada airport is very small (like 10 flights per day small), which makes it easy. Time to fly - maybe 5 hours door to door. The train will be longer than that.

If you want to avoid flying, go Madrid - Granada -car to the smaller towns - Seville - Cordoba - Barcelona. Cordoba to Barcelona is 4.5 hours.

we did 21 nights in Spain last April. I went through several itinerary options and finally ended up eliminating Barcelona altogether from the trip so that we could slow the pace down. We'll visit Barcelona next time. Here is what we settled on:
3 nights Malaga (this was a deliberate choice as we started our trip during Semana Santa) Visited Nerja as a day trip by bus.
2 nights Granada. Arrived by bus from Malaga. Picked up rental car as leaving and drove to
2 nights Ronda. Day tripped by car to Grazelema and Zahara. Drove to
3 nights Sevilla with a stop in Arcos en route. Dropped car off on arrival in Sevilla
2 nights Jerez with a day trip by bus to Sanlucar de Barrameda
2 nights Cadiz
2 nights Cordoba
2 nights Toledo
3 nights Madrid (with a day trip by train to Segovia)

All our travel was by train except where noted. There was a bit of backtracking in this route, but we were bound by soccer tickets we had in Sevilla. In hindsight I wish we had done Jerez as a day trip, and we didn't love Toledo as many here do - could have added a a day to Madrid and done it as a day trip. The weather was COLD in Ronda (and we are Canadians!) but very mild everywhere else. We really enjoyed Cadiz and Malaga (many here don't), must be because we live on the coast. Happy planning, enjoy your trip!